MIDDLESEX COUNTY -- The former chief financial officer for the Middlesex County Economic Opportunities Corporation pleaded guilty today to stealing $51,000 from the non-profit agency which is funded through state and federal grants.

Claudia Grant, 79, of Perth Amboy, entered a plea to third degree theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Frederick De Vesa in New Brunswick, said state Attorney General Anne Milgram, whose office is handling the case.

Grant told De Vesa that between July 2004 and February 2005, she authorized a payment by the corporation of $99,106 to credit card companies to pay off her personal credit card debt, according to a press release issued by Milgram’s office.

The statement said Grant told the judge that of the $99,106, $48,000 represented reimbursement of cash advances she made from her personal credit cards to pay a premium bill to Aetna Inc. for health care coverage for MCEOC employees. The rest of the money -- $51,106, paid off Grant’s personal debt.

Under the plea agreement, Grant must make full restitution to MCEOC of $51,106 and the state agreed to leave Grant’s sentence up to De Vesa when he sentences her Feb. 22.

Grant served as financial officer for MCEOC from May 1971 to March 2006.

The investigation into Grant started as a referral from the Department of Community Affairs, which raised concerns about financial problems at the Middlesex County corporation and the agency’s use of grant funding, the press statement said.

MCEOC operates programs for the needy around the county, but ran into financial difficulties beginning in 2005 and filed for bankruptcy in federal court in 2007. Until 2005, it also operated Head Start programs.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services withdrew $250,000 in funding for the Head Start programs, which provide day care to 600 youngsters from infancy to age 3, because of health and safety violations at the agency’s six facilities.

Without the federal money, the corporation had trouble making its payroll and, in at least one instance, workers had to wait for several days before they could cash their paychecks.

The Head Start programs were lost in 2006 and another provider took over but operated them out of MCEOC’s facilities.

In 2007, the corporation lost its state funding from the Community Service Block Grants due to its financial turmoil.